non-humanoid player characters?

[slade2501]

so I've been thinking (I know, again? really?) and I have been curious about how often as players and GMs you guys see non-humanoid Player characters. By non-humanoid I mean no arsm, or 4+ legs, etc. Something not human body shaped. What kind do you see? do they use technology? are they spell casters? psychic? tell me your experiences and stories, please. I would really love to hear about it.

[ShadowLogan]

Rifts is full of humanoid-ish races to play, but very few non-humanoids (these are the only ones that some to mind, but it shouldn't be regarded as a complete list):
-CB1r has a race of psionic cats (forget the name) imported from PF
-WB2, I forget off hand if the Metzla are available to PCs, but they aren't humanoid. Shaydor Spherians might also qualify (also found in WB6)
-WB7 has Dolphin and Whales
-WB12 has the Dragon Cat
-WB21 has the intelligent serpents (no limbs) and octo-men (8 limbs)
-WB30 has the Amorph (WB12 to) and maybe the Ecto-man, both are ectoplasmic beings so might qualify. The Vernulians in here might (4 arms, snake body) also qualify (also in WB1o).
-Phase World Dimension Books offers a race of spiders and "squid" (physically an octo-man with more limbs, capability wise a bit more)

[HarleeKnight]

Rifts is full of humanoid-ish races to play, but very few non-humanoids (these are the only ones that some to mind, but it shouldn't be regarded as a complete list):
-CB1r has a race of psionic cats (forget the name) imported from PF "Emirin"
-WB2, I forget off hand if the Metzla are available to PCs, but they aren't humanoid. Shaydor Spherians might also qualify (also found in WB6)
-WB7 has Dolphin and Whales
-WB12 has the Dragon Cat
-WB21 has the intelligent serpents (no limbs) and octo-men (8 limbs)
-WB30 has the Amorph (WB12 to) and maybe the Ecto-man, both are ectoplasmic beings so might qualify. The Vernulians in here might (4 arms, snake body) also qualify (also in WB1o).
-Phase World Dimension Books offers a race of spiders and "squid" (physically an octo-man with more limbs, capability wise a bit more)

[taalismn]

Playing amorphic or out of phase characters can be fun because they have different ideas of what constitutes 'public access'....A human comes to a new place, they start looking for a door, ideally a public enterance if they're not trying to break in. An amorphic or phasic character just goes in through a drain or solid wall..then wonders what's holding the others up.

Likewise, of there's not much detail on a non-human species, adlibbing up details can be fun. Matters of privacy can be amusing, for instance....Having a Zembhak constantly and casually intruding when the humans are getting dressed/undressed or in compromising positions can lead to the conclusion that the worm's utterly immodest or without natural inhibitions ....until the humans are unexpectedly chased out of the worm's screaming presence because it's having a 'voht period' or a 'blugh'.

[anakeron]

you have also the cihuacoatl/vernulian from the non revised edition vampire kingdom sourcebook if you like tentacled serpent

[taalismn]

Nebuloids are the squid in the Three Galaxies supplements.. There's also the Monro in PhaseWorld.
Zmbahk Worm in Atlantis.
There's the Junk-Crab in Lemuria which can be fun to play as well, if you like junk-collecting, jury-rigging crustaceans.

[dragonfett]

I think the most common non-humanoid race/RCC is quite simply the Dragon Hatchling.

Also, I'm not sure if they qualify, but Centaur's should also be in this list.

[glitterboy2098]

Centaurs are borderline, since while they are not technically humanoid overall, they are basically a humanoid permanently riding a horse.

[G]

I had loads of fun playing a Zebuloid technowizard.

A Zebuloid Technowizard (armored jellyfish), standing by way of a mass of 0-20' writhing tentacles on a floating surfboard. A small fish flies through the air orbiting this strange being. A deep and evil voice (HF13) speaking trade two (the telepathic & empathic language), seems to come from everywhere at once contradicts its peaceful nature.

I really hamed up how not human they are when playing..it is role playing, not roll playing. Which means getting to know your race, history, etc. I made up a background for the Zebuloid homeworld, types of technology they used, expressions, family, etc. You have a 4 part brain allowing you to do 4 things at once, like wax your shell while talking to people. I gave him psyscape like military training (the rank of blub-blub, equivilent to captain, from Red moon squadron , so he had radiate empathy, so you know he means well, even if he has a HF 13 (the contradictions were fun to RP). The standard TW surfboard fits right in, since he's a jellyfish, and I gave him a flying fish named sushi as a TW familiar...although thinking about it now, perhaps I should have used 4...as he thought of everything in terms of base 4. I recall loving the spell beat insurmountable odds. I recall, using unique combat tactics which I called whipboxing (grabbing people by the legs and using them as blunt objects), whatching skyboarding competitions, TW drawing things in 4d ( magic being the 4th). Or making comments about how evil he looked even standing still (he must be evil and up to no good, hes on a mass of writhing tentacles!). other PCs to NPCs, "don't worry about it, thats just Zorm being evil". I was really basking in the evil thing, even athough I was good....everyone's got foibles

..to human "I hear good things about your dolphin masters" And you know he's messing with you as he has radiate empathy...and is mentally laughing. Which IIRC correctly was followed by someone facepalming themselves..and walking away mumbling about dbees.

...or his speaking in 4 ways at the same time, Trade 2 (psionic, empathic) & 4 (american+gestures)...which was WAAAY more eloquent than other people..while looking at you evilly (recall, HF13). Or just describing him as having the most eloquent diabolically evil voice ever. Insert evil laughter here. ...So imagine mother Teresa with an evil voice and looking like a monsterous jellyfish. ..no one ever knows what to expect, you can create so much depth to this type of character from TW gear (being anything you can think of including turning a compu-drug dispensor into a bubble gun, using TW grenades-rock->mud, flash/freeze, cloud of slumber, swirling lights), to the fact he liked vehicles and had one TW shrunk tank (he was a pilot, comm officer, and two gunners all at once)...sure OOC its less powerful than he is, but that doesn't matter to the fun aspect. Or trying to sneak up on people prentending to be a turle (IIRC you can be from like 4-24' tall). I recall buying a heal wounds spell to go save CS lives against their wills (the evil monster is healing me!). Ah, fun times...

I played two different dragon hatchlings...which were also lots of fun. I made but never played the amorph astral mage. Hmm I might have done one pickup game on the message boards...but that hardly counts.

[Nightmartree]

save CS lives against their wills

Evil
And i haven't gotten to play many non-humanoids (my GM doesn't quite know what to make of my character choices...) but i once got to play an alien vine thing, was a ambush predator/hunter species on their native ice planet (had the prettiest lotus like flowers too). Every time we were back on ship and i was in my room i wasn't a semi humanoid mass of vines (as in upright with limbs) but rather a spread out carpet of vines, my species views themselves as hunters and i applied it to him interactions and combat with enemies. Prefering to ambush or entrap enemies, i also had plant control and collected a number of plants i would quick grow for effects in combat, several of them were also used for enviroment control in my rooms (in combat its a plant that quickly sucks all heat from the area to grow, in my room it keeps it a nice lethal cold temp)...

Also gotta say, plant lifeform+plant controls grow plants up to like 300ft...i wasn't really OP unless you allowed me to set myself up in an area and then you walked in...but if you did you would quickly learn why my little vine persons race where the dominant predators of their frozen planet.

[ShadowLogan]

@HarleeKnight
Thank you for the name of the psionic cats.

@Tal.
Thank you for the name of the squid, and I forgot about the Monro.

[slade2501]

I am reminded of the trope "mobile suit human" where a non-humanoid alien gets a human shaped body it can drive around to experience or pass as a human. They kinda mention it in WB 4 with the Zembahk, and giving them a humanoid body like a triax infantry robot through TW or something fun like that.

[AlooWalking]

Great topic.
I have only personally seen it once. I had a player who was an orca Pneuma-Biform, and that was only because it was specifically an Underseas game. The other characters were a Loak and a Nuhr Dwarf with a rune diving suit.

I have wanted to play a Zembhak, Metzla or a Dragonwolf for years. I have some characters ready to go if the right game ever comes along. I've also considered the Worm Wraith from New West.

[Myrrhibis]

While other than Dragons, there haven't been many non-humanoids on the groups over run/been part of, there's a few of us (incl me) that make sure if we're not playing "humans" from some version of Terra/Sol 3/Earth, then we create/play out their non human nature.

See: Ateva from the "Foreigner" series by C.J. Cherryh.

[Blue_Lion]

There are a few non humanoid charters in conversion book 1.
The Spinx cat body wings human like head. (comes to mind)
I would not call dragons humanoid.

[Sohisohi]

so I've been thinking (I know, again? really?) and I have been curious about how often as players and GMs you guys see non-humanoid Player characters. By non-humanoid I mean no arsm, or 4+ legs, etc. Something not human body shaped. What kind do you see? do they use technology? are they spell casters? psychic? tell me your experiences and stories, please. I would really love to hear about it.

Most of the time it is me who plays these types of characters: Blue Otter, Cactus Folk, and Crocodilian.
Though, I do recall someone once playing a battlecat/warcat.

I'll also be trying to run a Mecha only campaign fairly soon and one of the players wants to play a Killer-Whale/Orca Mech pilot right out of book 7 (or was it 6, the undersea one).

[Sohisohi]

orca Pneuma-Biform

Pneuma-Biform?

[Khanibal]

orca Pneuma-Biform

Pneuma-Biform?

Pneuma-Monya?